Roger McGough You’ve Gotalot To Answerfor

let me guess
that policeman disguised as the sun
is straight from TheSixties
where you swapped
your tried and teacher punctuation
and famous last wordbreaks
for flowerhair pot
and not-so-holywater rock.

it was theseventies
i was sixteen and hadneverbeen —when your poems
cameclose and crept-in

and
with a word likeafterwardsfinished me offand i ran allthewayfrom homeditching my shoes with their brokenhigh ideals

and although i am stilltakingoff my dress of guiltthese days my mother might bea real bird in a real tree

and my words have not
died an old woman’s deaththankstoyouand justquietlyits muchlovelater.

.

A tribute to Roger McGough and his poems Comeclose and Sleepnow, The Icingbuss, and Let Me Die A Youngman’s Death.

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9 thoughts on “Roger McGough You’ve Gotalot To Answerfor”

Oooooh! Why am I not surprised that I had never heard of Roger McGough! There must be thousands of British poets I have never read, but I’m indebted to you for introducing me to this one very delightful human being who just happens to be a poet! Your tribute poem is off the charts wonderful! But what six-letter word did you have in mind in your third stanza? I’m guessing it must be a little raunchy! Right? Wait! SEXUAL! That will work! I’ll bet that’s it! Yay for me!! And to think I was going for the “F-word”!!

actually Ron, I wanted the emphasis to stay on “neverbeen” and for there to be a slightly longer pause there. Maybe a comma would have done it but certainly didn’t want to uses one of those! an em dash? or an ellipsis on that next line. I tried lots of possibilities. maybe just using an upper case B, neverBeen. that just might work… or if I indent “when”… (a few thousand drafts later…)

These three Roger McGough poems were in a school curriculum anthology when I was a teenager. (with long line of wonderful modern poets) What a gift for a virgin radical! McGough particularly inspired me and I wrote my first few poems (and my teacher sent them away and they were published!) I immediately loved the writing of poems and the miracle of editing, but I didn’t seriously apply myself till I was in my forties.